Five Recommendations for Creating K–16 Pathways for All Students

July 30, 2024

This post was originally published by WestEd’s Center for Economic Mobility.

By Rachel Antrobus and Alexandra Lozanoff

In this blog, we share five foundational strategies for building high-quality K-16 pathways in the context of common challenges and emerging possibilities.

In today’s dynamic job market, students need coherent career-focused pathways from high school to college and employment, commonly called K-16 pathways. When education systems aren’t connected, students have to fill in the gap. Educators, industry leaders, and philanthropic organizations widely recognize the importance of creating seamless, supportive, and student-centered K-16 pathways as an ideal model for academic and career development. Yet, pathways are challenging to fund, develop, and sustain.

K-16 pathways are broadly defined as clear, sequenced coursework and supplemental activities across multiple education segments (i.e., high school, community colleges, and 4-year institutions). These pathways allow learners to explore their interests, identify education and career goals, shift into different pathways using their transferable interests and competencies, and earn academic credentials—all while accumulating skills and qualifications that align with jobs.

The Importance of K-16 Pathways

K-16 pathways are a key strategy for expanding opportunity. Without explicit connections between education segments, the onus is on students to navigate from high school to college and careers on their own. For students with resources and cultural capital, the gaps are typically navigated successfully and seen as an opportunity to explore interests without the pressure of translating education choices into a career. However, for low-income, first-generation college students, the disconnects between education and careers too often translates into difficulties navigating the gaps between high school, college, and career and often results in a lost connection with postsecondary institutions. Education systems and employers can work together to address the structural factors that get in the way of equitable outcomes and provide first-generation college students with the holistic support needed to successfully transition from high school to college and career.

In California, several initiatives, such as the Regional K-16 Education Collaboratives Grant Program, are providing resources and establishing minimum requirements for K-16 pathways. WestEd’s Center for Economic Mobility is supporting the Regional K-16 Education Collaboratives Grant Program by providing deep technical assistance, including developing implementation plans, facilitating K-16 pathway convenings, and advising K-16 Collaboratives’ leadership teams. The promising practices, strong partnerships, and innovative approaches underway across California–paired with state-level policy changes—offer the promise of meaningful progress toward coherent, career-focused pathways for all students.

Recommendations

1. Next-step options within pathways: High schools provide at least one community college dual enrollment course, and community colleges include a course that is transferable to a 4-year institution.

One way to bridge gaps between systems is to ensure students get early access to the next step in their education journeys. For example, high school students can take college courses through dual enrollment, and students in community college can take classes that count toward a 4-year degree.

To create coherent options for students, high schools, community colleges, and universities need to work together to identify which courses students should be encouraged to take, ensure educators with appropriate disciplinary and youth development backgrounds are recruited to teach the classes, and put systems in place to help students register for courses. They also need to iron out misaligned system requirements such as seat-time minutes, teacher qualifications, and providing sufficient room in school schedules.

2. Employer commitment: All levels of educational programs align with employment opportunities, including opportunities for work as students progress along a pathway.

Building pathways from high school to college and career requires coordination between education and industry. However, the two sectors often operate in silos, with little ongoing communication or collaboration. This divide can result in a mismatch between the skills that students are taught in school and the skills that are needed in the workforce. If K-16 pathways are to be successful, employers need to commit to advising the pathway curriculum and providing real-world experiences, including work-based learning, and education partners need to have a depth of understanding and the ability to integrate in-demand skills.

Current structures are not well suited for deep engagement between education and industry. Employers may not be engaged until a curriculum has already been developed, and access to employers is often based on individual relationships. By developing regional structures for employer engagement focused on specific industry strategies, a broader range of partners can be engaged to develop action plans around work-based learning opportunities, hiring, and program design. Exemplar partnerships, such as the California Transit Works! statewide consortium, can serve as a model for developing and scaling partnerships between employees, unions, and educators to build worker-driven curricula, training programs, peer mentoring, and registered apprenticeships.

3. Work-based learning: All education segments (K–12, community colleges, 4-year institutions) provide experience-based opportunities that are valued by employers.

When students gain real-world experience through internships, job shadowing, and project-based learning, they gain confidence early in their academic journeys and are better able to find the career that is right for them. Unfortunately, high schools and colleges lack funding and infrastructure to offer robust, equitable, hands-on training and real-world experience for all students. Work-based learning is one of the most difficult elements to scale, but in every successful scenario, industry partners meaningfully invest by helping students gain real-world experience and making their workplaces “student-ready.” Education partners can support this commitment by providing employers with strategies for welcoming and supporting a diverse group of students.

Both education partners and employers require funding and staff capacity to support students as they enter new environments, gain new skills, and process their experiences in ways that prepare them for career decision-making and enable them to secure future opportunities. In addition, on-the-ground strategies should be supported by reexamining policies that create barriers, such as fingerprinting requirements or age-restrictions.

4. Student-facing pathway maps: All education institutions provide roadmaps to students that clearly describe course sequences, required levels of education, and employment opportunities.

To be effective, K-16 pathways need to make educational journeys and career opportunities clear for students and families. Given that students have so many education options, educators can help clarify what types of jobs are available and the different possible pathways to prepare for those occupations. It is critical that, rather than existing in a silo, the roadmaps are instead incorporated into students’ academic lives through the classroom, college preparation, family engagement, advising, and cocurricular activities.

The Los Angeles Regional Consortium is addressing this challenge by making local labor market data available to everyone through an open-source data tool. Practitioners can use this tool to identify high-wage, high-demand jobs available in their region, determine the programs and certifications that prepare students for these jobs, and the pinpoint the skills students need to succeed in their chosen field. Instructors, counselors, student support professionals, and admissions officers can incorporate this information into recruitment materials, counseling, and lesson plans.

5. Articulation agreements: Community college and 4-year institutions ensure that courses are accepted for transfer to shorten time to employment.

Agreements on course articulation are required to maximize the opportunity for community college students to transfer to 4-year institutions. Articulation agreements often are negotiated between individual institutions and require the engagement of administrators, faculty, and academic senates. As a result, students who are considering more than one major or transfer institution are faced with the daunting task of understanding and comparing the many possible combinations of transferable courses and pathways.

Creating articulated transfer pathways that share common general education and major requirements can be a game changer for students’ journeys through K-16 pathways. In California, Assembly Bill 928 and the corresponding Associate Degree for Transfer Intersegmental Implementation Committee outlined a range of recommendations for state-level action to support more equitable transfer, including creating Associate Degrees for Transfer that are recognized by all public 4-year institutions, guaranteeing admissions for transfer students, streamlining transfer pathways in STEM, and reengaging students who completed transfer requirements but have yet to enroll in a 4-year institution. In the meantime, Regional K-16 Education Collaboratives are working to explore new articulation agreements while cocreating solutions to address equity gaps within current transfer pathways.

Creating K–16 pathways that allow students to reach living wage jobs and respond to workforce demands requires close attention to structures, information flow, and regulations. As California is demonstrating, establishing regional collaboratives that include K-12, community colleges, 4-year institutions, and employers allows practitioners to shift the burden of navigating these systems away from students.

Rachel Antrobus, EdD is Director of Intersegmental Projects in WestEd’s Economic Mobility, Postsecondary, and Workforce Systems content area where she provides technical assistance to the field, focused on improving college and career pathways within K–16.

Alexandra Lozanoff is a Senior Project Manager in WestEd’s Economic Mobility, Postsecondary, and Workforce Systems content area where she is responsible for designing professional development for postsecondary and workforce development clients.